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Then they had dinner, and some sheepskin to stuff into their subarmalis, or to put under the bedroll.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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M. Demetrius\\n[quote]... but the primary purpose was to penetrate the guy holding the shield, with or without hitting the wood first....
I should think that a Roman line soldier could hit a target the size of a skull from his normal throwing distance almost every time. It's what kept him alive. quote]Indeed, I would agree - in practice.
In my time with the military, and now with law enforcement, I see guys who could and can consistantly nail small groups concentrated on the bullseye of a paper target at "standard engagement" range, In practice. Then, when put under the stresses of time, moving targets, etc. they don't perform quite as well. Now raise those stress levels a little higher, in live combat, and the average gunslinger drops to barely better than 10% even hitting the target.
Marcus Julius Germanus
m.k.a. Brian Biesemeyer
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Ok, the skulls were Sheep skulls, don't know how long they we're dead but luckily the sheep were not attached.
As for the consistency of skull, we'll that something I can talk at length on. When I was a lad I had a job doing all the dirty jobs around an abettor (slaughter house). when 'alive', cow and sheep skull is hard but flexible. When hit with a cleaver it will absorb quite a lot of the energy from the impact, but will split. If you drive a sharp pole into it, it may also split, but more often than not it won't, just leave a hole.
Now if you use a ram gun, it will not always split apart but you will always get cracks running out from the point. Now this is consistent with what Alan and Tom report.
As for throwing accuracy, when you've 5,000 lads chucking them at more or less the same time, I hardly think it counts :wink:
Now let me tell you all the story about the exploding cow. You see we had this cow that had died one night. when we started work in the morning it's digestive gasses had expanded the thing to about three times it's original size. We desperately needed to diffuse the beast before it bloody exploded, but how would we do it? Just then one of the lads said 'Oh look Martivs, there's you Pilum over there"...
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Ick. Don't go any further. :mrgreen:
How long did it take to clean up and deodorize the pilum?
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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The Pilum? Oh, we never found that afterwards... :oops:
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We tend to use Celts. We used to use sheep but we found local Celts were much more maneuverable and provided a much more realistic target. We still use the sheep mind you, but that's another story... :oops:
